For the purpose of facilitating the fastening of the seat belt, various seat belt forwarding devices have been proposed. A seat belt forwarding device is particularly useful in two-door passenger cars because the retractor for the seat belt is located in a center pillar which is some distance behind the front seat, and it requires some efforts for the vehicle occupant to reach for an end of the seat belt which is also some distance behind the front seat. Further, the seat belt should not be in the way for a vehicle occupant who is to be seated in the rear seat.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,650,215 discloses a seat belt forwarding device having an arm pivotally mounted on a side of a front seat rear part at its base end and carrying an end of a seat belt at its free end. This arm is actuated by a cable connected to a door checker in such a manner that the arm may rotate forward when the door is opened and rotate rearward when the door is closed. The device incorporates spring members to allow some freedom of movement to the arm for its satisfactory operation. The forward movement of the arm is achieved by the cable and the reverse movement of the arm is achieved by a restoring force of a tension coil spring.
However, according to this prior art seat belt forwarding device, it is difficult to achieve a smooth movement of the arm since it much depends on the initial tension of the cable which is difficult to control. Also, the use of wire cable for actuation requires fairly complicated wire cable arrangement, and considerable efforts are required for its assembly.
It is conceivable to use an electric motor to actuate the arm carrying an end of a seat belt. In this case, an electric motor is typically mounted under the seat, and the power transmission mechanism for transmitting power from the electric motor to the seat belt forwarding device tends to be complicated. As a result, considerable efforts are required for its assembly and/or the cushioning capability of the seat may be impaired by taking up space which is otherwise allocated for cushioning material.